from the opera The Midsummer Marriage-Tippett's decision to extract the four Ritual Dances from his opera 'The Midsummer Marriage' as a self-contained concert suite reflects the fact that the medium of dance was always present in his conception of the opera. From the start there was to be an interaction within the opera between the real world and the world of mythology partly Greek partly Celtic. This mythological element culminates in the finished opera in the 'Ritual Dances' of Acts 2 and 3. Tippett himself described his opera as a kind of elaborate 'L'après midi d'un faune; in which the 'Ritual Dances' display a powerful sexual energy though of a very different kind from Debussy's voluptuouslangour. Composition of The Midsummer Marriage occupied Tippett for six years from 1946 to 1952. The first performance of the Ritual Dances as a concert suite was given in Basel on 13 February 1953 by the Basel Kammerorchester conducted by Paul Sacher and preceded the premiere of the complete opera by two years. Today the Ritual Dances rival the Concerto for Double String Orchestra (ETP 1331) as Tippett's most widely-performed orchestral work.

(1989)Since its premiere by the Baltimore Symphony in 1994 at Carnegie Hall the GRAMMY®-winning Metropolis Symphony has entered the orchestral repertoire and been performed by orchestras all over theworld.Metropolis Symphony is a five-movement musical response to the world of Superman and Oh Lois! invokes Lois Lane news reporter at the Daily Planet alongside Clark Kent (alias Superman). Marked withthe tempo “faster than a speeding bullet ” this five-minute movement is a lively polyrhythmic counterpoint that suggests a cartoon history of mishaps screams dialogue crashes and disasters all in rapid motion.Duration - ca. 5:00

(2000) Arranged for band by the composer UFO is inspired by the unidentified flying objects that have become an obsession in American popular culture. Written for and first performed and recorded by world-renowned percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie this dramatic and colorful work is popular among professional and student percussionists and is always a hit with audiences. Duration - ca. 40:00